? Cupressaceae | ||||||||||
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| [image] Cupressus sempervirens foliage and cones | ||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||
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| Genera | ||||||||||
| Actinostrobus - Cypress-pine Athrotaxis Austrocedrus Callitris - Cypress-pine Callitropsis - Cypress * (Cupressus) Calocedrus - Incense-cedar Chamaecyparis - Cypress Cryptomeria - Sugi Cunninghamia - Cunninghamia Cupressus - Cypress Diselma - Diselma Fitzroya - Alerce Fokienia - Fujian Cypress Glyptostrobus - Chinese Swamp Cypress Juniperus - Juniper Libocedrus Metasequoia - Dawn Redwood Microbiota - Microbiota Neocallitropsis Papuacedrus * (Libocedrus) Pilgerodendron * (Libocedrus) Platycladus - Chinese Arborvitae Sequoia - Coast Redwood Sequoiadendron - Giant Sequoia Taiwania - Taiwania Taxodium - Bald Cypress Tetraclinis Thuja - Thuja or Arborvitae Thujopsis - Hiba Widdringtonia
the bracketed genus following |
The Cupressaceae or Cypress family is a conifer family of cosmopolitan distribution. The family includes 27 to 30 genera (17 monotypic) with about 130-140 species. They are monoecious or (rarely) dioecious trees and shrubs from 1-112m (3-367 ft) tall. The BARK of mature trees is commonly orange- to red- brown and of stringy texture, often flaking or peeling in vertical strips, but smooth, scaly or hard and square-cracked in some species.
The leaves are arranged either spirally, in decussate pairs (opposite pairs, each pair at 90° to the previous pair) or in decussate whorls of 3 or 4, depending on the genus. On young plants, the leaves are needle-like, becoming small and scale-like on mature plants of many (but not all) genera; some genera and species retain needle-like leaves throughout their life. Old leaves are mostly not shed individually, but in small sprays of foliage (cladoptosis); exceptions are the leaves on shoots which develop into branches, which eventually fall off individually when the bark starts to flake. Most are Evergreen with the leaves persisting 2-10 years, but three genera (Glyptostrobus, Metasequoia, Taxodium) are Deciduous or include deciduous species.
The cones are either woody, leathery, or (in Juniperus) berry-like and fleshy, with one to several ovules per scale. As with the foliage, the cone scales are arranged spirally, decussate (opposite) or whorled, depending on the genus. Seedlings usually have two cotyledons, but in some species up to six.
Cupressaceae is the most widely distributed conifer family, with a near-global range in all continents except for Antarctica, stretching from 71°N in arctic Norway (Juniperus communis) south to 55°S in southernmost Chile (Pilgerodendron uviferum), while Juniperus indica reaches 5200 m altitude in Tibet, the highest altitude reported for any Woody plant.
The family Cupressaceae is divided into seven subfamilies, based on genetic analysis:
Largest - Giant Sequoia
Tallest - Coast Redwood
Stoutest - Montezuma Cypress
Second oldest - Alerce (after Great Basin Bristlecone Pine)
| Links to other Pinophyta families |
| Pinaceae | Araucariaceae | Podocarpaceae | Sciadopityaceae | Cupressaceae | Cephalotaxaceae | Taxaceae |